“TODAY” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie is set to return to the flagship NBC morning show Monday, more than two months after her mother disappeared.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
Guthrie, who has co-anchored “TODAY” since 2012, stepped away from her role in early February after Nancy Guthrie, 84, went missing from her home near Tucson, Arizona. Authorities have described the case as a possible kidnapping or abduction.
Guthrie told an Easter church service on Sunday “I still believe,” while speaking about how her Christian faith has been tested during the search for her mother.
In her first interview since the start of her family’s ordeal, Guthrie told Hoda Kotb last month that she believed returning to the “TODAY” anchor desk is “part of my purpose right now,” even though it was difficult to imagine going back to a workplace she associates with “joy and lightness.”
“I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back because it’s my family,” Guthrie said in the interview, which aired in March. “I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try.”
“TODAY” co-anchor Craig Melvin, announcing Guthrie’s return on the March 27 broadcast of the show, said: “It’s where she belongs. It’s where we all want her to be. We cannot wait to welcome her back with open arms here in Studio 1A.”
Nancy Guthrie’s family reported her missing around noon Feb. 1 after she did not show up at a friend’s house for virtual church services, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Office. She was last seen the previous night around 9:45 p.m. after having dinner at her daughter Annie Guthrie’s home, according to authorities.
The investigation into her disappearance gripped the nation and put an intense spotlight on the quiet Catalina Foothills area of Tucson. Authorities have not identified a suspect or motive, though the FBI released chilling doorbell camera footage of an armed and masked man outside Nancy Guthrie’s home on the morning she was reported missing.
The bureau described him as a man of average build, 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall, wearing a black Ozark Trail Hiker Pack 25-liter backpack.
Guthrie and her siblings, Camron Guthrie and Annie Guthrie, have provided updates on the case via social media. In emotionally wrenching videos on Instagram, they have thanked members of the public for their prayers and made direct appeals to Nancy Guthrie’s possible abductor.
“Someone knows how to find our mom and bring her home,” Guthrie wrote in the caption to a Feb. 24 video post.
The family is offering up to $1 million for information that leads to the 84-year-old’s recovery. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for “information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
Kotb, a “TODAY” contributor, substituted for Guthrie. In that period, Guthrie withdrew from NBC’s coverage of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics; Mary Carillo stepped in to co-host the opening ceremony alongside NBC Sports’ Terry Gannon.
Guthrie visited the “TODAY” set March 5. In photos taken from outside the studio by a photographer for The Associated Press, Guthrie could be seen wiping tears and embracing her colleagues. The visit was not televised.
“I really wanted to come and see everybody. I just love this beautiful place that we call home, where we get to come and be every day,” Guthrie told Kotb, adding: “When times are hard, you want to be with your family.”
Leave a Reply